Gas prices are three cents lower in Western Pennsylvania this week at $3.713 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report.

This week’s average prices: Western Pennsylvania Average                         $3.713
Average price during the week of July 29, 2024                                               $3.742
Average price during the week of August 7, 2023                                            $3.909

The average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline in various areas:      

$3.537      Altoona
$3.805      Beaver
$3.854      Bradford
$3.466      Brookville
$3.618      Butler
$3.616      Clarion
$3.676      DuBois
$3.640      Erie
$3.715      Greensburg
$3.784      Indiana
$3.727      Jeannette
$3.834      Kittanning
$3.821      Latrobe
$3.687      Meadville
$3.822      Mercer
$3.669      New Castle
$3.544      New Kensington
$3.833      Oil City
$3.743      Pittsburgh
$3.686      Sharon
$3.773      Uniontown
$3.843      Warren
$3.698      Washington

Trend Analysis:
The national average for a gallon of gas dipped three cents since last week to $3.47.  The drop comes as Hurricane Debby has made landfall today in Florida but so far, has had no significant impact on oil production. Today’s national average is four cents less than a month ago and 36 cents less than a year ago.

According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gas demand slid from 9.45 million barrels per day to 9.25 last week. Meanwhile, total domestic gasoline stocks fell from 227.4 to 223.8 million barrels. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 10.0 million barrels per day.

At the close of Wednesday’s formal trading session, West Texas Intermediate rose by $3.18 cents to settle at $77.91 a barrel. The EIA reports that crude oil inventories decreased by 3.4 million barrels from the previous week. At 433.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 4% below the five-year average for this time of year.